AXIAL 2.0: FACILITATING A SHIFT TOWARDS A EUDAIMONISTIC SOCIETY

In episode 10, Paul Marshall focuses on ways of facilitating a shift towards a new relative eutopia and eudaimonistic society.  He structures his presentation around integrative metatheory and what he calls ‘Axial 2.0’ practices -- 21st century practices that resonate with core aspects of the Axial Age, above all internal family systems therapy (or IFS). He begins by discussing some relevant terms like concrete utopianism and eudaimonistic society, and then examines two previous shifts in human history comparable to that required today: the transition to modernity and the Axial Age.  He then discusses two crucial moves that can help us navigate this transition: a shift in our vision of human nature; and the active promotion of psychospiritual flourishing and development on both an individual and collective level. For the individual level he draws on Hanzi Freinacht’s four-part model of psychological development and IFS; and for the collective level he briefly considers and compares two recent political programmes or manifestos designed to lead us to a more ‘listening’ or ‘caring’ society: those outlined in Hanzi Freinacht’s Nordic Ideology (2019) and Michael Lerner’s Revolutionary Love (2019).